My name is Regina and I am a teacher, not by training but by experience, having put in over 20 years of teaching both in primary and secondary school levels. I was born in the southern part of Sudan and moved to Uganda in the 80s during the first war of liberation. It was a blessing in disguise in that their system allowed me to complete pre-university levels (S5-S6) which were not available to me in Sudan.
In 2010 I returned to southern Sudan married with children and jobless. Thankfully after submitting an application to teach at Harvesters, they hired me and I’ve been working with them ever since. In 2011 a peace agreement was reached, which ultimately culminated into the independent declaration for the newest country in the world, South Sudan. It was all happiness but that was to last only a matter of years before everything started moving backwards.
Long story short, I want to say that in recalling the life I lived before working at Harvesters as being a testimony that there is a hell. Today, however, I have managed to educate my children through to college courtesy of the God-given salary I earn from Harvesters. My children have attended EPC-Nehemiah Secondary school where all Harvesters orphanage children have studied from which is a prestige in itself.
Unfortunately when war broke out in the state nearly three years ago, schools closed down as people were forced to run for their lives and either go into exile or return to their mother country. While Harvesters had some teachers and kids leave the area, Mr. Mourice sacrificed his own safety and stayed to care for the orphans who had nowhere to go, which kept us around too with the school operational. And while internally people keep getting displaced, God is with us and the presence of Harvesters has continued to present us with hope.